This August, Wake County changed its final exam exemption policy. This new policy replaced Leesville’s criteria from last year, which was under ten absences and under ten tardies.

The new policy states that students may be exempt from teacher-made exams if they have an A in the class and no more than three unexcused absences or a B in the class with no more than one unexcused absence. Students also may not have more than four tardies or any academic honor code violations in the class.

Students aren’t happy about this new change. Vincent Russell, sophomore, said, “I think this isn’t fair because some students have out of school activities that if they miss they have to take the exam.” Wake County knows this. School sports and medical appointments – and many more reasons — qualify as excused absences and would not count against students being exempt. 

Some teachers were more concerned about students manipulating the new policy. Mrs. Blackburn said, “If you restrict it to only unexcused, I think there’s going to be a lot of students that play the system and get their parents to write them notes, so it counts as an excused absence.” 

Time will tell if this prediction proves correct. Despite the change, students will continue to work hard and many will strive to exempt themselves from exams despite the stricter rules this year has imposed.

Andrew Cook, staff writer